Direct mail and mobile marketing lead business investments in local media advertising. This some encouraging news for North American print and direct mail service providers: In 2022, US local ad revenue is forecast to surpass the previously impressive rebound of 2021, with direct mail leading to capture more than a 20% piece of the pie. BIA Advisory Services forecasts overall local ad revenue to grow 10.1% year-over-year in 2022.
This will be the second consecutive period of year-over-year growth, considering that US direct mail ad revenue has declined -5.1% annually between 2015 and 2020 (source: IBIS World).
US non-political advertising mail volumes were down in 2020 as retail, leisure, beverage, and travel services paused or reduced their direct mail campaigns in the face of the pandemic.
Counterbalancing that commercial decline, 2020 was a record year in election campaign ad spending that included high volumes of political direct mail. Political mailings helped printers stem some of the lost commercial ad mail revenue in 2020. With minimal local elections in 2021, commercial mailings made up for the massive void left from 2020 political mailings.
Despite the numerous issues facing the USPS, there are still millions of local and regional brands confidently relying on printed mail’s higher response rates and lower customer acquisition costs.
